Iran Encourages Sex Change Surgery to Solve Gay Problem

In Iran, it is illegal and considered sinful to be gay or to be involved in homosexual relations. The punishment can be death. A CBC report reveals what can only be called an unprecedented move: Iran deals with the crime and sin of homosexuality by offering fully-paid sex change surgery.

This 'solution' came about when Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini declared sex change surgery permissible for 'diagnosed transsexuals'. This surgery allows homosexuals to avoid penalty and continue in their lifestyle without retribution . . .provided they can live with the physical alteration to their own body and the abandonment that may come from loved ones.

Iranian-born filmmaker Tanaz Eshaghian made a documentary about the subject titled Be Like Others. In it, she covers many aspects of the situation including the discrepancy in attitude between the classes and the fact that many Iranian homosexuals prefer to remain in their own country and face the knife than move to a country with more toleration for homosexuality.

To complicate matters further, there is a difference between transgenderism and homosexuality. To treat them as one and the same is irresponsible. As Nancy R. Nangeroni explains in an article about transgenerism and related terminology, Transgenderism is the belief an individual has that the gender they are 'inside' does not match the genitalia he or she was born with. A woman may feel she is really a man born with the wrong parts. Transgendered people may or may not have a sexual orientation that, based upon their genitalia, would class them as homosexual.

Homosexuality is the sexual attraction to the same gender. A man can believe he is a man in man's body while at the same time feeling aroused by and attracted to other men.

To further confusion, some assume that cross-dressers (also known as transvestites) are either transgendered people or homosexuals. Cross-dressing is an activity undertaken by both heterosexual and homosexual individuals - who may or may not be transgendered.

To force homosexuals to choose between death or physical alteration is barbaric. The alternatives are to risk getting caught while living in secret or to leave all they know in order to live openly gay in another country. This move, however, does not change how the Muslim world views homosexuality - a world in which the person in question would still be a part.

Resources:

Iran's gay plan. Matthew Hays. CBC News. August 26, 2008.

Be Like Others Official Website.

Transgenderism. Transgressing Gender Norms. Nancy R. Nangeroni. Updated April 2007.